September 16, 2013

The new edition of Ditko's LASZLO'S HAMMER is now available, Kickstarter backers should be getting it from Robin Snyder directly soon. For those who didn't back the funding campaign, ordering information is at the usual spot, and sellers who order from Snyder should have copies soon if they don't already. Like right here. Retailers interested should contact Snyder for bulk rates on the entire library of Ditko/Snyder co-publications.

The title feature of course is the 27-page comic format essay from 1992 (as revised in 2002, to correct the spelling of "Laszlo" from "Lazlo") on the opposing topics of creation and destruction, starting with the example of Laszlo Toth's 1972 damage to Michelangelo's The Pieta using the same type of tool Michelangelo used to create the sculpture. Ditko explores the issue in a variety of ways, from the allegorical to the abstract to the concrete (including some amusing scenes on the creation and "editing" of comic books). It's one of the crucial texts in Ditko's independent work.

Also included are the single page "It's Either... Or" (first seen in the fanzine GUTS #5 [1969], and I believe the earliest example of one of Ditko's signature constructs, reducing characters down basic forms to make a universal point) and the 4-page "In Principle : The Unchecked Premise" (first printed in STEVE DITKO'S STATIC [1988], and one of his most fully realized allegorical pieces). Robin Snyder provides some introductory notes and a list of Kickstarter backers.